Saturday, May 20, 2017

Nairn, Allan. (10 Apr 2017) Democracy Now. Objections or Questions.

1.ALLAN NAIRN: Well, I have a—first, I have
a brief question for Julian Assange. Mr. Assange, you said that you did not get
the leaks directly from a state. You said you know you did not get the leaks
directly from a state. Do you know
that Russia didn’t give you the leaks through an intermediary?

2.ALLAN NAIRN:So it is possible that, as Comey said, Russia gave you the
leaks through an intermediary?

3.ALLAN NAIRN: OK. Well, my view of this is that
during the campaign, WikiLeaks often suggested that Trump would be less
dangerous than Clinton. (Objection 1.1) [JULIAN ASSANGE: No, we
didn’t.]ALLAN NAIRN:I think you did.

4.ALLAN NAIRN:I think that concept is wildly,
gruesomely mistaken. There was the argument—well, it’s just—

5.[JULIAN ASSANGE: In fact, I was asked
that question directly on Democracy Now! at the time about what my
position was, asked which one I preferred. And my response is, being asked this
question is being asked: Do I prefer cholera, or do I prefer gonorrhea?]ALLAN NAIRN: OK. Well, let’s
say—let’s say, if you frame it that way, the idea that the two—

6.ALLAN NAIRN: The Democrats were
responsible for that epic loss, no question.

7.ALLAN NAIRN: I agree with that. However,
I would note that the Trump campaign thought that WikiLeaks was on their side.

Now, the idea,
that Mr. Assange just suggested, that Trump and Clinton were equally
dangerous, two different deadly diseases, I think is
wildly and gruesomely mistaken. (Objection 1.2) Clinton
represented a criminal establishment. But Trump and the people he brought in
with him make it worse, make it even more criminal. This idea that it was just a choice
between the lesser of two evils. (Objection 1.3, which contradicts Objection
1.1.)Well, in politics, in life, you
fight like hell to have good choices, to have better choices—in this case,
Sanders was a better alternative—but once that is no longer possible, then of
course you choose the lesser evil. (He agrees with Objection 1.3) What
do you want, more evil? More killing? More pollution? More abuse of immigrants?
More racism? More impunity for corporations? More aid to death squads? More
spending for the military? All of that is what you get with Trump, in
distinction to the bad—the other bad things you would have gotten with Clinton.
And the win of Clinton was not—or, I’m sorry, the victory of Trump was not equally
as bad as it would have been if Clinton had lost. It’s a catastrophe. It’s an
utter catastrophe. And those who are poorest, those who are already most
oppressed and most vulnerable, are the ones who are suffering most as a result.

And we ain’t
seen nothing yet. They’re just getting started. Now with Gorsuch coming on the
Supreme Court and with the possibility that the legislative filibuster in the
Senate will be abolished, as well as the Supreme Court filibuster, if that
happens, that will give Trump and the radical Republican right, who now control
the Congress, essentially absolute power. The only thing standing in their way
will be some federal judges, which means that within the system there will be
no blocking power. There will be nothing to stop them. In that case, the only
way to stop them will be from outside the federal system, which means in the
streets or from the systems of the states and localities. We’re in the midst of
a right-wing revolution. I agree that a lot of this discussion about Russia and
leaks is misguided, a lot of it, and it’s diverting attention from two main
facts. One, we’re in the midst of a right-wing revolution that must be stopped
and reversed. Two, the Democratic establishment discredited themselves, and
they have to be removed and replaced by the Democratic base.

8.[JULIAN ASSANGE: I caution Allan
strongly. I have a lot of respect for his work, but I caution him strongly to
not to get swept up into what is an attempt by the Democratic Party in this
particular case, but by the two parties, to polarize the population into party
politics. There’s lots of interesting things that can come out of this Trump
administration. We’re seeing great horrors, of course. But we are seeing these
horrors. We are seeing the—] ALLAN NAIRN:Not so interesting
to the people who are being killed and deported.

9.ALLAN NAIRN: The conflict between Trump
and the intelligence and the deep state is a spat, not a struggle. Trump has
insulted them. He has disrespected them. So they’re unhappy with that. More
importantly, Trump wants them to change their tactics to become more crude and
even more violent. Once they work together on a couple of new wars, they’ll get along
just fine. (Objection not to Mr. Assange.)